4/10/2003: Flame nebula

Thanks to Elspode who sends along another great astro pic. He notes: "The 2 Micron All Sky Survey has been completed, and the images are stunning. With this infrared survey, you can see a lot more detail in familiar objects due to the ability of infrared to penetrate through dust layers, both in the universe and in the objects themselves. Wonderful online site presents the whole catalogue of images...awesome. And all of them are Earth based. Not even Hubble performs this well in IR."

I'll say. It's ANOTHER beaut! The link notes that the above is the flame nebula, the below is the horsehead nebula.

The wife is interested in buying some of the Hubble prints, which can be bought for a pretty decent price, printed on photographic paper. I love them but I wonder if, after 20 years, we're going to have so much more vision of the universe that they'll seem very dated. Just like Apollo-era images today. You realize the importance of them, but they remind you just as much that they are from a different era. The state-of-the-art of their day, certainly, but even in that short amount of time, we've gone past that now.

Source: http://www.ipac.caltech.edu/2mass/ga.../Flame_Neb.jpg

Most photography, astronomical or otherwise, has an inherent value, regardless of age. Due to their very nature, photos capture both a moment in time (of the subject) and a moment in technological history (the photo itself, as an object).

I find even the oldest astro photos to be fascinating because they allow me to appreciate much more keenly the amount of advancements we have achieved in the science, and to feel that much more appreciative of the quality, quantity and availability of the information and imagery we have at our fingertips.

BTW...the Horsehead Nebula is not the other brightly illuminated nebulosity below the Flame Nebula in the photo, but rather is a barely visible portion of the very faintly illuminated strip of nebulosity at the bottom of the picture.

*sigh* I wish to hell and back they would at least double the budget on the space programs... I want to take the afternoon shuttle to the moon before I die...

fricken' reality... always ruinin' my dreams...

Space. OK.

http://www.islandone.org/LEOBiblio/

http://www.astronautix.com/articles/probirth.htm

Cheers.